Agents pondering the effects of this week's Budget have spoken of the Chancellor missing an opportunity to reform stamp duty, reform planning and further stimulate the housing market.
With wages well below inflation and rents rising rapidly for years, many have been struggling to save for a deposit, let alone meet a huge stamp duty bill. Helping more buyers to enter at the lower end of the market would have resulted in more movement and transactions, freeing up stagnant property chains and bringing badly-needed housing onto the market explains Simon Rubinsohn of the RICS.
"Stamp duty is an unjustified burden which is preventing the proper functioning of the housing market and exacerbating the shortage of housing supply, especially in London and the southeast. It is disappointing that the only support to the housing market was the extension of Help to Buy according to Brendan Cox of Waterfords agency.
The 15% SDLT requirement is a 275% increase for those choosing not to buy a property in their own name, quite draconian and perhaps something of a political reaction to a Government worried about their selling London to foreigners' image If they had wanted to show how housing is important to them Osborne should have appointed a secretary of State for Housing to the Cabinet rather than leaving a Junior Minister to take the rap was the strong reaction from Ed Mead of Douglas & Gordon.
The new garden city in Ebbsfleet will create housing and jobs and is a step in the right direction to address the shortage of homes but we firmly believe the key to unlocking long term growth and delivering new homes targets is through planning reform says Nick Vaughan of Hamptons International.
Jonathan Manns of Colliers International summed it up this way: The government needs over three million new homes by 2020. In London a population increase of 25 per cent is anticipated by 2030 taking the city from 8.3 million residents to 10 million. The delivery of 15,000 homes at Ebbsfleet, in a location with existing infrastructure and planning permissions in place, therefore fundamentally fails to address the current housing crisis.
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